UCLA

The promise of high-density and low-energy-consumption devices motivates the search for layered structures that stabilize chiral spin textures such as topologically protected skyrmions. At the same time, recently discovered long-range intrinsic magnetic orders in the two-dimensional van der Waals materials provide a new platform for the discovery of novel physics and effects. Here we demonstrate the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and Néel-type skyrmions are induced at the WTe₂/Fe₃GeTe₂ interface. Transport measurements show the topological Hall effect in this heterostructure for temperatures below 100 K. Furthermore, Lorentz transmission electron microscopy is used to directly image Néel-type skyrmion lattice and the stripe-like magnetic domain structures as well. The interfacial coupling induced Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction is estimated to have a large energy of 1.0 mJ m^-2. This work paves a path towards the skyrmionic devices based on van der Waals layered heterostructures.